Ridge Gets the Joke, but He Hasn't Lost His Focus

By JOHN TIERNEY

Published: March 17, 2003

WASHINGTON, March 16—
Many cabinet members serve entire terms without becoming household names, but the new secretary of homeland security is already that and more. Tom Ridge has become a one-man economic stimulus package for the comedy industry.

Duct tape is now a punch line; the color-coded alert system has spawned a thousand riffs. One Tom Ridge impersonator opened ''Saturday Night Live'' by changing the national threat level to magenta (''not quite an oxblood''); another performed in front of President Bush and Mr. Ridge at the Gridiron dinner last weekend wrapped in plastic sheeting. Tonight, as usual, the Capitol Steps comedy troupe here will regale the audience with scary bedtime stories read by Tom Ridge.

''Tom Ridge appears more frequently in our show than any other public figure, including President Bush,'' said Elaina Newport, the troupe's producer. ''It's great for us that he's supplying so much material, but I think a politician is in trouble when the audience starts laughing as soon as he walks on stage.''

Mr. Ridge seems to be in no trouble with his most important audience, President Bush, an old friend. He is regarded in the administration, and by many of his former colleagues on Capitol Hill, as a dependable, experienced politician in a tough position: blamed as an incompetent if a terrorist attack occurs, mocked as an alarmist if it does not.

But his public image has taken a beating, and not only from comedians. He and his department have been criticized by experts in terrorism and risk-management for scaring Americans with vague warnings and for confusing the public with poor advice.

''Homeland security is a difficult job, but they've been at it for 17 months, and they're certainly not getting any better at it,'' said Ivo H. Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. ''They want to be absolutely sure that if anything happens they can say they've warned us about it. But by covering their back sides, they're making terrorism into something more awful.''

Mr. Ridge has said the alert system, which uses five colors (green, blue, yellow, orange and red) to rate the threat of terrorism, is mainly to tell the police and other security officials to be more vigilant. But the news that the threat level has been raised can leave people frustrated because they do not know what the danger is or what they can do about it.

''Ridge and the department need to come up with a better way of saying, 'Be afraid,' '' said David Ropeik, director of risk communication at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. ''They say, 'Be alert,' and then out of the other side of their mouth they say, 'Go about your normal lives.' To most of us, those messages don't mesh. They also need to be more specific. When the threat level goes from yellow to orange, tell us what we can do besides being more alert.''

Mr. Ridge made one attempt at specificity when he appeared on the ''Tonight Show'' in November. After praising Jay Leno's many jokes at his expense, he took a direct question from the comedian.

''I'm setting at home in my underpants watching the game and, boop, we're in yellow,'' Mr. Leno said. ''What do I do now?''

Mr. Ridge got a big laugh with his reply: ''Change shorts.'' Mr. Leno recalled later that the line was not scripted.

''That was a pretty good ad-lib line,'' said Mr. Leno, who offered a couple of theories for Mr. Ridge's enduring comic appeal. ''Tom Ridge always makes me smile because he looks like the guy on the Just For Men hair-coloring box. And he's got a thankless job. When problems seem overwhelming, simplistic solutions always seem funny. Duct tape and plastic sheeting? When the threat level goes down, it'll be downgraded to Scotch tape and two Ziploc bags.''

The duct tape jokes began last month when, three days after raising the threat level from yellow to orange, Mr. Ridge's department suggested that residents make emergency plans and stockpile food and supplies, including plastic and tape that could be used during a biological or chemical attack. After reports of panicked people sealing their homes, Mr. Ridge explained that the tape was intended only for use in an emergency, but the jokes went on.

''Perhaps,'' said Mark Russell, the stand-up pianist, ''he's got us so confused and frightened that we are all just trying to amuse ourselves at his expense. I didn't find him funny until he announced, 'I didn't tell you to use the duct tape, only to buy it.' That's when I wondered about how much stock in the 3M company Ridge might have.''

The duct tape jokes came as no surprise to Tim Nyberg, one of the self-proclaimed Duct Tape Guys, the co-author of ''Duct Shui'' and a series of other humor books listing thousands of uses for the tape.

''When I see a piece of duct tape holding something together, it strikes me as funny because it's obvious that it was a quick fix by someone who neither had the patience nor the ability to fix it correctly,'' Mr. Nyberg said. ''Come to think of it, that seems to be the American way lately.''

That's roughly the same conclusion reached by Gary Hart, the former Democratic senator from Colorado who led a national commission that recommended the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. ''The idea of using duct tape to protect yourself would resonate only if people could see the government taking action to protect you,'' Mr. Hart said. ''But because the government has done so little against terrorism at home, it sounded as if they were saying, 'You're on your own.' ''

Other Democrats have also criticized the Bush administration, saying it has not spent enough on domestic security. But there has been little personal criticism of Mr. Ridge, at least publicly. While a few members of Congress have expressed private doubts about his abilities, he is generally popular, especially with the many former colleagues in the House of Representatives who have met with him.

''He has probably met with three-quarters of the members, and his reputation is very solid on both sides of the aisle,'' said Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California, who is chairman of the House committee on domestic security. ''The public has gotten a lopsided view because he can't talk publicly about much of the enormous effort the department has made to prevent terrorism.''

Sig Rogich, an image consultant who worked in the White House when Mr. Bush's father was president, said that the jokes had not hurt Mr. Ridge with his Republican base.

''His relationship with the president is excellent, and you've got to view him as one of the most well-respected Republican leaders,'' said Mr. Rogich, who now runs a public relations firm. ''There may be some grousing about the color-coded alerts, just as I'm sure people complained about false air-raid alarms during World War II. But it's the price you pay.

''I happen to think humor is a good way of talking about serious subjects,'' he said last week in a speech to military veterans here, and told them about a cartoon showing a man wondering what to do now that he had taped a duck to a window. ''Might want to keep him alive until Thanksgiving or Christmas,'' he said, pausing for laughter, ''but probably not in that environment.''

Photos: Tom Ridge, above, the director of homeland security, lightened up on the ''Tonight Show'' with Jay Leno in November and even praised him for his jokes on security. A Ridge impersonator, Brian Ash of the comedy troupe the Capitol Steps, right, regularly reads scary bedtime stories as part of a skit. (NBC); (Susana Raab for The New York Times)